


Gold Digger

by jezebel



Category: The Social Network (2010)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Angst, F/M, M/M, Pining, TSN-kinkmeme prompt, Triggers, slight AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-08 03:09:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1127642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jezebel/pseuds/jezebel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on prompt from kink-meme:<br/>Typical post-dep scene - Mark and Wardo haven't spoken for years. Chris drifted away and Dustin kind of followed him, and Mark's pretty much alone, everything is pretty much boring and repetitive...</p><p>AND THEN BAM, one day Mark gets married to some chick nobody has ever even seen before. She's hot and loves shopping and everyone is convinced that she's a gold digger. Mark doesn't seem to care for some reason even if his wife is partying up a storm with Sean Parker and his lot.</p><p>Wardo is not okay with this.</p><p>Is it a real marriage or just a really believable ruse?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Additional warnings in the foot notes (contain spoilers from Chapter 7)

Eduardo blamed his former secretary for his subscription to the clippings service that kept him informed of the comings and goings of his former facebook co-founders. His secretary had a slightly over-active imagination and had seen some romance in what had been the worst episode of Eduardo's life - it probably explained why she was his former secretary. When Wardo had left New York for Singapore he was glad to leave her behind.

The clippings were forwarded from an American service, mostly featuring news of new apps on Facebook, and Eduardo never got around to cancelling it because he reasoned that it allowed him to keep in touch with his investment. This week's pack was larger than previous ones and Eduardo wondered if he had missed an update, but he was surprised when it was not articles from the Washington Post or the Financial Times but rather magazine articles.

Picking one at random, Eduardo was surprised to see that the headlines were in lurid pink and white fonts and appeared more from gossip magazines and tabloids than from anything else.

When he read the article he realised why people had been looking at him differently for the last few days. 

"Zuckerberg (Face)Books his Wedding"

"Zuckerberg updates status: Married"

Eduardo dropped the articles on his desk and turned to his laptop. Later he might find it ironic that his first port of call when he read the news was to log in to Facebook, but where else would he get the truth.

As Eduardo logged in he typed in Mark's name in the search box, the familiar press photo that usually appeared had been updated with a new image. The familiar profile picture, the one issued with this year's shareholder report, had been replaced with a photo of Mark and a strange woman that Eduardo didn't recognise.

In that moment Eduardo had never felt further from his former friends; Singapore felt a million miles from Palo Alto. It hurt that after all they had been through that Eduardo hadn't been invited to the wedding, he was sure the terms of his agreement meant that he could have at least sent a polite and tasteful card with the required donation to a charity. Instead he had to find out from the media. Eduardo had not even known that Mark was dating.

There were the obligatory staged photographs that Eduardo had seen in the article and a brief message (presumably approved by Chris) about the couple's wedding which contained a reference to the happy couple and the particulars of guests and venue. There was no real detail about their relationship though and in the pictures Mark looked uncomfortable. It wasn't that Mark didn't often look like this, particularly when forced to pose for publicity shots, but he surely he would be more relaxed at this wedding.

The girl, for she was obviously younger than Mark, appeared to enjoy the attention in a way that Mark never had. She smiled beautifully into the camera, and he could see why Mark had picked her; the question that remained was why had she chosen Mark?

\---

Over the next few days Eduardo found his mind drifting from his work and he spent more and more time obsessing over Mark's marriage. Eduardo didn't want to admit that he had set up google alerts for Mark, nor did he want to admit that he had taken to trawling Facebook every hour to look for updates from any of their mutual college or Facebook friends that may have attended the wedding for insight into Mark's wife. He didn't want to admit, to himself or others, that he might be slightly obsessed with her and Mark's relationship.

Eduardo rationalised his feelings because he had been Mark's only friend. After the lawsuit he had returned to Harvard with the only other appropriate adult in Mark's life and left him with only Sean Parker as an advisor; no wonder Mark had not made all good choices. Surely it was Eduardo's right, if not responsibility, to keep an eye on him.

As the stories from the days and weeks after Mark's wedding appeared in Eduardo's inbox his initial feelings of ill-ease grew from concern to full blown worry. He knew that some of the gossip would be hyperbole but there was a worrying trend of images following Mark's new wife as she seemed appeared at club openings, mall sales and anywhere else that here picture could be taken. The worst part was that she was rarely accompanied by Mark on these outings, instead being photographed sipping Cristal with Sean Parker and any number of his dubious friends.

There were rumours that she had a previous relationship with Sean, that he had set her up with Mark as a way to get back in his good graces after the drugs fiasco, and that she was his way of regaining control of Facebook - the conspiracy theories were wild enough that they sounded like something Sean himself would have come up with.

Finally after two weeks of photos and news articles, there was one headline that Eduardo couldn't ignore:

"Mark Sucker-Berg!" 

The writer had drawn the same conclusions that Eduardo had about the new woman in Mark's life. Now it was in the public domain Eduardo didn't feel like a stalker in his concerns.

He was booked on the next plane out to California and he would see for himself who this woman was and what she wanted. 

Eduardo knew some good lawyers and he couldn't believe that Chris would have let Mark get married without a pre-nup.


	2. Chapter 2

Eduardo's concerns only grew as he spent the best part of a day flying to get to California. He had barely slept on the flight and the claustrophobia of being trapped in an airplane with nothing to do but think gave him plenty of time to consider the reasons that Mark might have married the brunette. Everything from a simple PR stunt to Sean Parker blackmailing him with something ran through Eduardo's mind. He could not think of any reason why the usually so isolated Mark would get married other than some type of manipulation.

As soon as he arrived at the airport, Eduardo picked up a hire car and instead of checking into a hotel decided to drive straight to the Facebook offices.

The offices were familiar to Eduardo but thankfully Mark had moved the HQ from the office where Eduardo had confronted his friend and broken his laptop. Eduardo had only been here once or twice for shareholder meetings but nothing as emotionally charged as their last argument; Eduardo thought that convincing Mark to get a divorce might be as confrontational as it had been after the share dilution.

Eduardo had barely entered the building when he was accosted by a member of staff. The casual dress code made it difficult to tell management from other employees but he knew he had been recognised by the concern on the young man's face.

"Er, I don't think Mark is expecting any guests today, Mr. Saverin." He said nervously.

Eduardo wondered what he had done to earn the title Mr. Saverin, a name more associated with his father, and why Mark was just Mark. There had been a time when he was 'Wardo' to the employees of Facebook, but that was when the staff was still only a few instead of the multi-national teams that Facebook now employed.

"I'm not here for a meeting," Eduardo replied. "I just need to see Mark. Don't worry, I know the way."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Saverin, but..." The young man swallowed and looked at his feet. "Mark didn't come in today."

Eduardo could barely believe the words he was hearing, or the implication that the now married Mark was spending time away from the office. Eduardo hoped this didn't mean that he was spending time trying to save his marriage - time he had not or would not have spent trying to save his friendship with Eduardo.

"I'll try him at home," Eduardo said as he turned on his heel to leave. There was no point hanging around Facebook, he had to find Mark. He was almost at the door when he saw a familar face.

"Yo, Wardo!" Sean called from behind him.

Eduardo willed himself not to turn around, not wanting to see the evidence that Sean Parker was still welcome to come and go as he pleased in the Facebook offices when he had been challenged as soon as he stepped inside.

"Wardo," Sean called. "What are you doing here?"

There was a part of him that wanted to continue, ignoring the intruder and focussing on Mark, but that hadn't worked out so well last time. Perhaps there was more than one way to find out what was going on.

"I came to offer my congratulations to Mark on his recent nuptuals." Eduardo replied. "I've been informed he's not in the office."

Eduardo felt a hand on his shoulder, Sean had obviously caught up with him, and he felt himself turned to face Sean. Eduardo didn't want to look at him, didn't want to see the man that Mark had chosen to replace him with. He was surprised to see Sean in a suit and tie - he didn't think that had happened since he was fired as President (other than for any subsequent court appearances of course).

"I bet that was a surprise," Sean said.

There was none of the callousness that Eduardo would have expected - a man, and he used the term loosely, who had once teased him for wearing ridiculous suits and swanning around as if he owned the company - instead it was worse than that; Sean Parker was being sympathetic.

"Obviously not a surprise to you," Eduardo retorted, "I understand that you know his wife well; almost too well!"

"Not that it's any of your business," Sean replied looking over his shoulder to ensure that they weren't overheard, "but, yes, I do know Tammi well. If you want to discuss this further, I suggest we step into my office."

Eduardo was about to make a joke about that when he looked up and saw a sign on a door across the room - "Sean Parker, Consultant" was stencilled on the glass door.

"Since when do you have an office here?"

"That's part of the further discussion," Sean replied. "I can explain if we can do it in private like a pair of reasonable, responsible adults..."

"I would," Eduardo replied, "but even with me in the room we'd be one short."

With that he stormed out taking with him only more questions about who this girl was and what had happened whilst he had been away.


	3. Chapter 3

Eduardo sat in his car outside the house he knew to be Mark's. He hadn't been inside but he had received a change of address notification on Facebook when Mark moved and seen the accompanying articles in Gawker. Eduardo didn't want to appear like a stalker, sitting outside the house and just watching, but he wasn't quite ready to knock on the door. Despite all the thinking he had done on the plane over, he hadn't thought about what he was going to say when he finally spoke to Mark.

The emotion of his confrontation with Sean and the jet lag from the flight were catching up with him and Eduardo was about to head to his hotel when there was a knock on the passenger window. It was a testament to how tired Eduardo was that, despite years of being alert of those around him, he had not noticed someone approach the car.

Looking up Eduardo was surprised to see that Mark was stood waiting expectantly.

Eduardo turned the keys and unlocked the doors to get out but was surprised when Mark climbed in next to him and shut the car door.

"What do you want, Eduardo?" Mark asked, turning to face him. Eduardo remembered this hostility from the depositions - he thought that Mark would have forgiven him by now. He wondered if Sean had texted Mark to tell him that Eduardo was here. He wondered how Sean had wormed his way back into Mark's life and wondered if his wife was part of that.

"I hear that congratulations are in order," Eduardo replied sarcastically.

"I would say thank you but I don't think you mean it," Mark replied "And even if you did, I'm not sure that is reason enough to leave your self-imposed exile to return to Palo Alto."

"I came to make sure that you hadn't lost your mind," Eduardo said, "the Mark I knew at Harvard would never have married so quickly; I wasn't even sure you would ever date again after Erica."

"I dated." Mark replied.

"Yeah, but no one more than once or twice." Eduardo said with a sigh, there was a time that he had hoped that he would be the one to put Mark's heart back together - towards the end of their friendship, when everything had happened with the share dilution, he wasn't even sure that Mark had a heart. 

"Look, whilst I appreciate the nostalgia fest..."

"She's using you, Mark." Eduardo interrupted. "I could see it all the way from Singapore - the way that she is out drinking and partying with Sean every night whilst you work on Facebook; the fact that she doesn't appear to have any discernable talents other than the obvious appeals..."

"I lied." Mark said, cutting off Eduardo's pleas with his usual curtness. There was an edge to his tone and Eduardo remembered it from the depositions as Mark had written off their whole friendship as nothing more than a failed business proposition.

"What?" Eduardo asked, wondering what Mark was going to say. Perhaps he had been wrong and she was not using Mark - perhaps there was more to the story after all.

"I lied." Mark repeated, more slowly this time in the tone that he saved for those he thought beneath him (which was most people), Eduardo had never heard it levelled at him before though. "I don't appreciate the nostalgia fest."

Mark opened the door to Eduardo's hire car and stepped out, he held the door as he leaned in.

"What I do or don't do, and who I do it with, is none of your business anymore, Eduardo." Mark said. "You lost that right when you didn't come out here when I needed you and then froze the accounts."

"Mark..." Eduardo said, not wanting to cover old ground again.

"No," Mark said, "You don't get to try and run my life anymore, Eduardo. You might not understand but Tammi is the best thing to happen in my life in a long time; I don't have to explain myself to you."

"I'll go." Eduardo said tiredly. "But I'm not giving up so easily."

"If you're hanging around then you should call Dustin and Chris. I might not want you here, but I'm sure they've missed you."

With those parting words Mark headed back into the house. 

Eduardo was left wondering when Mark had started to care about anyone but himself and Facebook and when he has stopped calling him Wardo.


	4. Chapter 4

Waking late the next morning, Eduardo ordered room service and ate a room service breakfast whilst he considered a plan of action. He really wanted to confront the girl, this Tammi, to see what her intentions were but much as he hated to admit it Mark had been right to question Eduardo's concern.

The heated conversation with Mark had left Eduardo shocked, hurt and a little surprised at the vehemence of feeling that Mark had when talking about his wife. The only time he had seen Mark that passionate about anything he had been defending Facebook. The part that hurt the most though was not that Mark had grown up without him, nor that he had had apparently moved on from their friendship, it was the fact that he had insisted on calling him Eduardo. He hadn't been expecting that. Even through all of the depositions, Mark had never sounded so formal when he said his name.

Eduardo knew that things had changed, that he had grown older and with the benefit of time had started to understand on a business level why Mark had removed him as CFO. He had made a bad business decision and the benefit of hindsight told him that he could have trusted Mark's vision more, or admitted when he was out of his depth in an emerging industry that he didn't understand. Age hadn't dulled the ache of losing Mark as well as his share of Facebook though, if anything it had heightened Eduardo's need for his friend - being here just reminded him how much further away he was.

Eduardo was just finishing the cereal he had ordered when his cellphone rang.

"Eduardo Saverin speaking," he answered, expecting it was on of his colleagues or clients calling with a business query. He barely left the office these days and his trip had come as something of a surprise, but had told his secretary he would be available in emergencies.

"What did you do to Mark?" Dustin asked, not apparently feeling an introduction was necessary despite it being months since they had last spoken. Dustin and Eduardo were still on speaking terms, though mainly on official Facebook business or at shareholder meetings, but Dustin seemed to think they were still back at Kirkland.

"I didn't *do* anything to Mark." Eduardo replied. He took a deep breathe and remembered that Dustin required an element of patience that he didn't always have first thing in the morning.

"He texted last night to say that you were in town, that Chris and I should call and arrange to see you." Dustin said. "He sounded like someone hurt Beast. His puppy." Dustin added the last as an afterthought, Eduardo was not going to admit that he checked Beast's facebook almost as much as Mark's over the last week.

"I didn't do anything to his dog, Dustin." Eduardo said with a sigh, wondering if he should have another coffee if he was going to have to go into details of the previous night's encounter with Dustin. "We had a difference of opinion - that's not uncommon for Mark and I."

"You should come to dinner," Dustin said, the change of topic made Eduardo smile as he remembered the random things Dustin would say aloud.

"I have some meetings..." Eduardo started to say, Dustin didn't let him finish.

"Bullshit! You came to check out Tammi."

"You've met her?" Eduardo asked. "Aren't you a little concerned by the media coverage? Has Chris met her?" Eduardo realised that this was his chance to get some answers, if not from Mark then maybe from their other friends. He would have to be patient in dealing with Dustin, ensure that he asked the right questions, but he knew that Dustin was always one to share gossip if he knew it and Eduardo was willing to listen to find out what had happened; to get the details that he needed to get rid of the thread to Mark even if Mark did not appreciate his interferring yet.

"Mark didn't tell you?" Dustin asked in confusion. "Wow, that must have been some argument you two had."

"Dustin..." Eduardo warned.

"No, I can't tell you if Mark doesn't want you to know. At least not over the phone. Come to dinner tonight, I'll make Chris cook. I'll text you the address."

Eduardo was about to stop him, to think of a polite way of backing out of dinner, but before he could Dustin had hung up on him.

Eduardo was more confused than ever, but his plan of action started with finding out what it was that Dustin thought Mark should have told him and ended with finding out whatever he could about this girl, this Tammi, in order to get her out of Mark's life for good and allow him to return to Singapore to carry on with his own life.


	5. Chapter 5

Eduardo arrived at the address that Dustin had given him carrying a bottle of Rioja and a six pack of generic beer - Chris had refined his tastes since college and Eduardo knew that they both shared a passion for wines but Dustin hadn't grown up that much since college and still preferred beer. Eduardo favoured imported brands, but had bought something domestic that he hoped Dustin would still drink.

Chris had kept the meal simple, pasta and home made garlic bread, and dinner conversation remained light as the three caught up with their various business and personal pursuits and mutual friends. The elephant in the room, Mark's marriage, remained dormant but loomed large as they approached dessert.

Eduardo was still choosing between the key lime pie and vanilla cheesecakes that Chris had picked up when the doorbell rang. The glare from Chris to Dustin, and the responding eye roll told Eduardo that at least one of them had planned for guests. He suspected that it was Dustin as Chris was never one for dramatic confrontations whereas Dustin thrived on them.

"I'll just..." Dustin started, trailing off as he indicated toward the front door.

"Eduardo..." Chris began, he didn't have a chance to finish his sentence before he saw Sean, Mark and Tammi enter the dining room with Dustin in tow. 

"Just in time for dessert!" Dustin said happily, ignoring the death glares that Chris and now Sean and Mark were sending his way.

"Hi," Tammi said, extending a hand to Eduardo. "You must be Eduardo, I've heard so much about you."

Eduardo ignored the offered hand and instead pushed his chair back and stood up as if to get away from her.

"Not all bad." Mark added at an attempt at humour. It fell on deaf ears as the tension in the room grew exponentially.

"Thank you for dinner, Chris," Eduardo said, "I'll pass on dessert though, I've suddenly lost my appetite." The look Eduardo gave Tammi told anyone who doubted his words that she was the cause for this sudden loss of appetite. 

As Eduardo turned to leave, he felt a hand close around his arm in an attempt to stop him. Turning slightly he saw Sean with a concern on his face that Eduardo had never seen from Sean before. 

"You might want to let me go, unless you want me to follow through with the punch this time." Eduardo threatened through gritted teeth. He was trying hard to hold back his anger but it wasn't working. Eduardo had come to understand the busienss decisions that Mark had made when he removed him from the company, but there was no amount of therapy or understanding that could make him hate Sean Parker any less for the way that Mark had executed his exit from the company. Eduardo had a visceral reaction when it came to Sean Parker and he didn't think he could deal with this anymore. He had to get out of there before he said, or did, something that would result in another lawsuit.

He should have known that this dinner was going to be an ambush.

***

Eduardo made it outside and was just unlocking his hire car when Mark caught up to him. He was surprised that it was Mark, and not Chris, that had followed him outside.

"Come back inside, Eduardo." Mark said, his voice even. "We should talk."

Eduardo tried to keep the anger down, his grip on his car keys tightening as he tried to count to ten, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't hold his anger back this time.

"I'm pretty sure you said it all yesterday when you told me it wasn't my job to run your life; you have a perfect wife waiting for you inside, Mark, what could you possibly have left to say to me?" Eduardo asked. 

"I want to apologise, for how things were back then. When I met Tammi...well, I guess how we met...it gave me some perspective and..."

"I don't want to talk about her," Eduardo said, as he felt his anger growing, "I certainly don't need to hear the romantic tale of how you met her." 

The truth was that Eduardo was more than interested in how they met, but he wasn't sure that he wanted Mark to know that. It might reveal other things that Eduardo didn't want Mark to know, things that Eduardo was still trying to deny himself.

Eduardo was surprised by Mark's snort of laughter. It made Eduardo angrier that Mark was not taking this seriously. Mark never treated anything seriously; even being sued by his best friend had been a joke to him something that he had only given the limited amount of time and attention that he thought Eduardo deserved.

"It was hardly romantic," Mark replied.

"I didn't think it would be with you," Eduardo replied. "I mean Erica said dating you was like dating a stairmaster - so I always thought that when you dated someone they did all the work. I assumed it must have been her that pursued you. Gold diggers generally do the chasing."

"I would deny she's a gold digger, but I don't think you would listen." Mark said quietly. "I don't think you ever really listened."

"Ha!" Eduardo laughed, an angry sound that was more an outburst of anger than a true reflection of any comedic response. "You're talking to me about listening? You have the communication skills of an illiterate deaf mute."

"I listen when the person speaking is talking sense," Mark replied. "I heard you when you talked about advertising but I didn't agree with you. You don't ever listen. You didn't listen when I told you that it was too early to monetise Facebook, you didn't listen when I asked you to come out here and you didn't listen when I told you I needed you." Mark's anger was building now. "Now you won't listen when I'm trying to tell you..."

"Tell me what, Mark?" Eduardo interrupted.

Mark stopped abruptly, his eyes brimmed with tears, Eduardo was so surprised that he had stopped that his anger was overridden by the shock and worry that he had pushed this too far. Years before he would have been overjoyed to get a reaction, any reaction, out of Mark but he couldn't look at him now without feeling like something had changed for the worse in Mark and that he had somehow contributed to that.

"I needed you." Mark said. "Not because Facebook needed you, *I* needed you. I loved you, Eduardo, and you didn't listen."

"Mark..." Eduardo started.

"You moved half way around the world and you left me, left us, and now that I've moved on - I've finally found some contentment and you come back acting like the jilted friend. You're still not listening."

Eduardo's anger had fallen away to the gnawing pain in the pit of his stomach. All of the feelings that he had been denying for so long had reared up and he didn't know what to do with them. Love. Hate. Fear. All intermingled with a growing sense of self-doubt and self-recrimination about what he had done then and why he was here now.

Mark was barely containing his own emotions, a mix of pain and anger, as he stood shaking slightly. Eduardo realised that he didn't know what to do, this wasn't the Mark that he had known at Kirkland - this Mark actually had feelings, that showed those feelings, and Eduardo wasn't sure how to cope with that.

"Mark," A soft voice called from the doorway. "Why don't you come back inside. Chris is making tea."

"Tammi..." Mark said softly, the anger appeared to have subsided slightly but there was none of the sentiment that Eduardo would have expected from a newly married couple.

"Eduardo can come back inside too, he probably should. We have a few things we need to talk about."

Mark turned and looked right at her, his back to Eduardo, a silent conversation was obviously being carried out between them about matters that Eduardo was not privy to.

Mark nodded once and then headed back toward the house.

Eduardo paused a moment and realised that he was finally alone with Mark's new wife, but after Mark's revelations he was not sure what he should say.

***

Tammi stood a short distance from Eduardo, but he could feel her eyes on him as he tried to decide whether to follow Mark or to turn and head back to the airport and get on the first flight back to Singapore.

Eduardo found himself hating her a little more for the fact that up close Tammi didn't seem at all as he had expected from the stories in the gossip columns. Studying her as he weighed up his options Eduardo noticed that there was an air of intelligence about her as she watched him. She waited patiently for him to make a decision but she didn't seem bored or annoyed in the way that most of Sean's other previous girlfriends (and there had been a lot of them) would have been in the same situation. She wasn't the usual model type that Sean would have chosen either, and for a moment Eduardo wondered if the gossip pages had it wrong when they spoke of a sordid past that had led them to assume she was after Mark for his money.

"You should come inside," Tammi said, her voice softer than Eduardo had imagined it would be. If the situation were reversed and he were with Mark then he didn't think he would be so level-headed about someone Mark claimed to love turning up out of the blue and causing him anguish.

Eduardo paused, still uncertain of what to do. This felt like a turning point, like an important moment that he shouldn't rush into - not like he had done when he had signed the papers and inadvertantly given up his rights to his 30% - he didn't know what to do.

"I'm not sure there is anything else I need to know," Eduardo replied, his tone daring her to disagree.

"You should come inside," Tammi repeated. "I know that Dustin and Chris wouldn't want you to go without saying goodbye."

"And how do you know them so well?" Eduardo found himself asking, he still counted Chris as one of his closest friends and thought that Chris wouldn't mind if he left because Chris understood how difficult this was for him, for all of them. Chris had been there the last year at Harvard, just after the depositions, had been through all of it with Eduardo and yet she claimed to know them more deeply than Eduardo who had been friends with them for years.

"That's part of a longer story," Tammi said with a smile, "if you come inside I'm sure you'll hear it."

She waited a final moment before looking back toward the house. Eduardo couldn't help but wonder if she was giving up, and as she headed toward the house he felt a small victory.

"He never stopped loving you, you know."

***


	6. Chapter 6

"He never stopped loving you, you know.” – what was that supposed to mean? 

What was he supposed to do with that knowledge? 

Eduardo watched Tammi’s retreating figure heading back toward the house but remained frozen where he stood as her words sunk in.

Eduardo couldn’t begin to understand how anyone would stay with someone, marry them even, if they knew that they were in love with someone else and yet there was a part of him that thought this would not concern a golddigger like Tammi if all she was really after was Mark’s status or money. 

He felt trapped between his hire car that led to his escape back to Singapore, or heading into the house and answers that might lead to him finding out the truth but would more likely just lead to more heartache. Finding out that Mark had loved him, might still love him, didn’t change the things that had happened in the past and whilst Eduardo had started to understand the pragmatic reasons for his departure from Facebook it didn’t stop the feelings of betrayal over how it was done. Eduardo didn’t think that just knowing how Mark felt would suddenly gloss over the past and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to deal with his own mixed feelings for Mark either. 

Heading back to Singapore might be the only way that Eduardo would be able to come out of this intact, without causing any more damage to either Mark’s life here or to his own life. It seemed like the best solution, but a part of him couldn’t help hear Mark’s words about how Eduardo didn’t listen or understand him and he knew that leaving would be exactly what Mark would expect. 

Eduardo watched the shadows shifting inside the house, he felt the familiar loneliness start to seep in again as he watched the occupants and visitors obviously starting to settle down for the tea that Chris had made; life going on without him. It didn’t matter if he was in California or in New York or in Singapore, a voice in his head told him, they had moved on without him. 

Eduardo realised that this moment was a metaphor for the entire last few weeks since he had heard about Mark’s marriage; him on the outside trying to get an understanding of what had happened. And now that he was being offered the answers he was doing exactly what Mark had accused him of, running away instead of staying and listening.

He took a deep breath and decision made stepped back toward the house. He was surprised to find that the door was unlocked and left ajar as if Tammi had expected him to follow her despite his not knowing himself in that moment that he was going to return.

Whatever he expected when he returned to the room it was not what he found, there was no recriminations or mocking from Sean and no mentions from Mark about the revelations of a few minutes ago. The only acknowledgement of what had occurred was the knowing smirk from Dustin as he shifted on the sofa and patted the cushion next to him.

Eduardo ignored him and instead headed for the empty arm chair to the left of the suite. It put him closest to the door and in direct line of sight of Mark and Tammi (who had perched on the arm of the sofa next to her husband).

“So…” Dustin said, because he had never been one for uncomfortable silence.

Eduardo ignored Dustin and focussed on Mark. When he looked closer he could see that Mark hadn’t fully recovered from the confrontation outside and the emotion was still close to the surface. Tammi obviously noticed it too as she leaned down and reached for Mark’s hand. It was the first time that Eduardo had seen them touch and it surprised him that it was more maternal than sexual; not the type of touch that you would expect between two people who were supposed to be in love.

He wanted to comment, to ask one of the hundred questions that was going through his mind, but before he could speak Mark took a deep, shaky breath and started to speak.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for possible triggers (see footnote but contains spoilers)

“After the settlement … After you left for Singapore things were going well for a while. We went from gaining thousands of users a day to hundreds of thousands of users a day almost overnight and suddenly there were meetings with investors and shareholders and app designers who wanted to work with us...” 

Mark started strong, like this was a story that he was used to telling and it was certainly one that Eduardo had heard through the various meetings he had attended and sparse interviews that Mark had given, but then Mark’s voice stopped and he started to shake slightly again. His knuckles turned whiter as he grasped his wife’s hand as if his life depended on it.

“Then...it wasn't so good.” Mark said, the tone shifting as his eyes flicked briefly toward Sean and Eduardo wanted to say ‘I told you so’, Mark’s next words stopped him before he could speak.

“I’d never really been someone that kept regular hours; you’ll remember that from college,” Mark said, and Eduardo would have laughed if it weren't for the seriousness of Mark's expression.

"Suddenly there was so much to do and no one to tell me not to do it...”

Eduardo wanted to read into that statement; wanted to say that if he had stayed with Facebook that he would have told Mark to stop working and rest, just like he had when they were at college, even prizing the laptop from Mark's grasp to send him to bed. Eduardo almost mentioned it, wanting to lighten the mood with a reminder of their shared history, but he wasn't sure if that’s what Mark meant.

“Obviously I wasn't on my own with it,” Mark continued, “Chris and Dustin had their own workloads and we took on so many new staff that it seemed like I was signing dozens of new staff requisitions every day that first year or two but I couldn't just hand it over, I couldn't switch off.”

Mark paused, looked briefly toward Tammi who nodded her encouragement and then he turned back to Eduardo.

From the look on Mark’s face, Eduardo wasn’t sure that he wanted to hear what came next.

“It was only a little at first; nothing more than we’d done in college and only to help relax at the end of the day or after a particularly stressful meeting. Sean or Dustin were there half the time, as were half the programmers or coders so it didn't feel like anything more than what we had always done but then they say that’s how it gets you...”

“Shit...” Eduardo said, finally breaking his silence because he couldn't not say something to that revelation. The problem was that he wasn't sure what else to say after that. From the stoic faces around the room this was not a new revelation, but the tension hadn't diminished and Eduardo knew from the way that Dustin and Chris were sharing glances across the room that this was not the end of the story.

“I’m not an addict, at least not in the way you might be thinking; it’s just something that you need to know, need to understand.” He paused for a moment with a wry smile. “Of course that’s what an addict would probably say before taking the first step, but it’s not that. It’s just indicative of what came later.” 

“It didn't really start in earnest until after Chris had gone to Washington; not that I blame him for wanting to leave, Facebook was never part of his plans back in college.”

Chris looked slightly guilty and for a moment Eduardo thought that he may say something, especially as he knew he was half the reason that Chris had returned to Harvard, but then he Mark continued.

“Not that I suppose it was part of anyone's plans in college."

"I don't think anyone could plan for this," Dustin replied, his hands waving expansively as if to indicate that everything that was going on was more than they could have planned for. 

There was an awkward silence.

"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt the story. So, Chris was off in Washington, changing the world..." Dustin prompted. Mark rolled his eyes at Dustin's attempt at humor; but continued.

"It was a bit of a blur for a while. I had all but moved into the office at this point; I mean I kept spare clothes there and saw more of the office than I did my own home - not that this was much different from before, it's just I stopped doing anything that wasn't working, attending meetings or sleeping; then I was doing less sleeping and more working. Facebook was a 24/7 business and there was always something else to be done. I stopped sleeping more than four hours a night and told myself that if Edison could do it then I could do it. The problem was that like a lot of other things attributed to Edison, the fact that you can sleep for only 4 hours a night and still manage to get up and re-create the world isn't true."

If you had asked Eduardo after the lawsuit if what Mark was doing would change the world he would have laughed, but after seeing what had happened when Facebook helped people spread political messages and access truth in otherwise restricted countries he thought that perhaps the Edison analogy was not just Mark's ego.

"I started to miss things, small things at first like small errors in lines of code, or not remembering things for meetings; after a while colleagues put it down to stress. I took on a second assistant to manage my diary and starting getting the junior programmers to check anything I wrote before we put it on the live site. But then there was a particularly bad few days with DDoS attacks and they tried to bring the server down. I'm not sure why I thought that I could handle it without help, but it took 48 hours to clear the problem and by the time I made it home I was a wreck."

Mark took a deep breathe, it took Eduardo a moment to realise that there was a slight hitch in it and he realised that Mark was on the edge of what appeared to be tears.

His wife gave his hand a reassuring pat and Mark closed his eyes and continued.

"I don't think I was trying to kill myself when I took the pills, I just wanted to sleep. I was so wired from Red Bull that the crash from the caffeine and adrenaline caused a headache and I was too wired up - I thought if I had a drink and took some tablets I would be able to sleep. Apparently it worked a little too well...I was a little too out of it at the time to tell you what happened next..."

"That's how I found him." Sean said, his voice soft and low and in a tone different to any that Eduardo had heard from the usually animated, sometimes bordering on paranoid, entrepreneur.

"That's how we found him," Tammi added.

**Author's Note:**

> Fic last updated November 2012 on kinkmeme. 
> 
> I'm trying to finish off a few old fics, but updates are likely to be sporadic during 2015. This fic is taking a darker twist than originally intended - additional trigger warnings for discussion of suicide/mental health issues and general warnings of angst.


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